Nam: The Vietnam War in the Words of the Men and Women Who Fought There [Paperback]

Mark Baker (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 15, 1986

Numerous people who experienced the Vietnam War firsthand share their stories in this oral history. Men and women, officers and draftees, prowar and antiwar veterans, all give personal accounts of the bloodshed they witnessed, and the horrifying circumstances they survived. Grunts recount losing their friends in combat; doctors remember the patients whose lives they desperately tried to save; soldiers try to understand how they could become willing participants in the slaughter of innocent civilians; and veterans, back in the US, discuss dealing with nightmares and a life far away from the constant presence of war.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

The author based this 1981 volume on firsthand interviews with numerous unnamed military personnel who served in the war. Although LJ's reviewer found the anonymity a drawback, he said that "Baker's work does give frightening insights into the continuing long-range effects of the Vietnam experience upon those who were the most intimately involved" (LJ 3/15/81).
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

These skillfully edited interviews [form] a vivid collage. (Time )

Baker's text is studded by rootless 'I's' divorced from any condition except the shared experience of war.... The most convincing and horrifying book the war has produced. (Newsweek )

Nam easily stands with the best descriptive accounts of the war—Ron Kovic's Born on the Fourth of July, Philip Caputo's A Rumor of War, and Michael Herr's Dispatches. Baker presents the story as a smoothly flowing chronological narrative, filled with descriptions, which ring brutally true, of what went on in Vietnam. (New York Times Book Review )

Nam easily stands with the best descriptive accounts of the war—Ron Kovic's Born on the Fourth of July, Philip Caputo's A Rumor of War, and Michael Herr's Dispatches. Baker presents the story as a smoothly flowing chronological narrative, filled with descriptions, which ring brutally true, of what went on in Vietnam. (New York Times Book Review ) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 301 pages
• Publisher: Berkley; reissue edition (December 15, 1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0425101444
• ISBN-13: 978-0425101445
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 3.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #297,787 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars NAM makes forgetting impossible, December 22, 2000

By 

Drew Ross - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nam: The Vietnam War in the Words of the Men and Women Who Fought There (Paperback)

I met a Vietnam Vet my junior year in high school, he was missing an arm and one of his eyes. The movie Platoon had just come out. When asked if the events in Platoon really happened, his answer has stuck with me to this day. He said, "I believe that everything depicted in the movie was pretty accurate to events that did in fact occur. The only difference is that I don't believe it could have all happened to the same group of men." He then went on to say that the night the "Deer Hunter" played on national television, hundreds of Vietnam Vets committed suicide. It was his opinion that when Platoon eventually played on TV, it would be double.

Years later when I read "Nam" by Mark Baker, those words were with me. Did these stories really happen? I'm sure there are inaccuracies, but these are those who were there. Is there anyone who can stand up and say they didn't happen? It's unfortunate that we can't ask those who ended their lives after seeing a movie that was to some also fiction. Would they say these stories are untrue? If you are like me, you take their word for it and you have no choice but to be filled with a dozen different emotions, the majority of which are nothing close to joyous.

If you have any interest in what Vietnam was about to the individuals who served, you really should read this book. Here you will not hear about politics, or the impact of the television on public opinion. You won't get sound bites from presidents or celebrities. What you will get is a few hours spent with men and women who had to live in that place day after day. You will find that it wasn't always bombs and bullets they feared, but the very ticking of the clock itself. The incessant monotony that lulled them to sleep would then awake them with blinding flashes of their own deaths.

Some of these stories you will never be able to forget, nor should you. This is an event we would do well to remember in all its horrible detail. "Nam" goes a long way to ensure that forgetting is something we will never be able to do.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars For Vietnam Vets: sure to awaken a few personal demons, January 16, 2003

By 

Bert Ruiz "Author" (Pleasantville, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: NAM: The Vietnam War in the Words of the Men and Women Who Fought There (Paperback)

War is hell. To this end, author Mark Baker collects a vast series of comments from many of the brave men and women who answered the nation's call to duty. In doing so, Baker captures the terrible bloodshed of the Vietnam war.

The only negative factor of this book is that Baker is not a veteran. He is a journalist who did not serve in Vietnam. Consequently, a few of his snapshots are open to question. They certainly make for good copy but as a two tour USMC Vietnam vet I offer with absolute certainty that some parts of this book do not ring true.

Nevertheless, this is an important book. Baker reaches out to vets and allows them to bare their soul. Some sections of this book are horrible. Others reflect well on the quality of the American fighting man. All in all, any young kid who foolishly thinks war is glorious and that the battlefield is a place of honor should read this book. It will probably save his or her life.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THE ABSOLUTE BEST, December 25, 1999

By 

J. Ginn (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Nam: The Vietnam War in the Words of the Men and Women Who Fought There (Paperback)

I read this book about ten years ago. I bought a paperback in a drugstore and read it several times over before retiring it to the book shelf. I just researched it here to find out if it is still in print. Too bad that it's not. I WOULD recommend this book to anyone wanting to read about the REAL Vietnam. Well worth special ordering. This book is better than any movie or novel about Vietnam that I have ever read. It helped me have a better understanding of Vietnam Vets and what they endured. At nearly 30 years now since Vietnam, this book should be among the textbooks for US History. Lots of violence and adult language, but history is history. Report it like it was, then we can learn from our mistakes. GREAT BOOK!